Love the brunnera, Liz, it's called caucasian forget-me-not here. I've got one that was here when we moved in 17 years ago and still going strong. It's made a few seedling which I've spread around the garden but still very small.

Im planning a complete makeover for my garden this year. Heres how my garden looked in 2007 when we moved into the house..

And how it looks now after I put my own stamp on it..

But ive decided to make some big changes. With our young son growing up, Im finally ready to reduce the size of the lawn and increase the planting area. This is my plan, which includes a reshaped lawn, new path along the hedge, wildlife pond and much more planting. Im going to try and create a partly formal area to the left of the lawn by adding box balls/pyramids in each corner and along the new path, but with a cottage garden kind of look as well...

Plenty of back breaking work ahead, as soon as the weather warms up a little. Im on hard clay so I intend to dig out the whole garden, remove some clay, then put the topsoil back in with the addition of new soil.

Not sure I want to post these now after Lead Farmer's lovely pics. But I said I would. This is part of the area I'm re-doing after neglecting for a few years then allowing chickens to free-range.

Have now had some paved areas laid to walk on / sit on and will be planting around and about so there are lovely things to look at and chickens can scratch about underneath shrubs without making the place look like a desert. Thinking about thyme and ??? not sure what else to soften paved edges.

Great suggestion, Lead Farmer, thank you. I love lavender, it would like the dryish sunny aspect and it may be chicken resistant as I have some elsewhere that seems to have survived OK.

It would look great if it were allowed to grow over the paving, meaning your legs brush aginst it, disturbing its scent. French lavender looks amazing, but they arent always hardy. Up here in South Yorks my French Lavenders dont usually make it through the winter. Perhaps a scented English lavender would work well? Rosmary could work also?

LeadFarmer I love your ideas and plans. Will be hard work but how satisfying when it's done? I'm always planning, tinkering and doing impetuous things in the garden Keep us posted please

i find myself sketching ideas all the time. Its took me all winter to finally come up with a design I like. Now we have finally got trid of the kids swing and slide I can concentrate on how I actually want it to look. When the project starts I'll make a thread with all the photos.

Well whilst the wife is away for a few days I was supposed to be tidying the house, but instead Ive spent all day extending my garden plan to incorporate the whole garden. Cant believe Ive spent the whole day in front of the laptop!!!